July/August

Color time with Daddy.

Not a very good pic of her skirt, but she is wearing her new pink skirt from GG.

Cuddling with Nanna...

Playing in the water at school.

Another Kincaid trail...  Sydney kept yelling at Tucker as he would run up ahead of her and not turn around and wait.

Tucker checking out something on his side, Sydney on hers.

Future medical transcriptionist like Mommy???  This position will probably be obsolete by the time you are old enough, Sydney.

We came home to Ms. Keeli and Sydney just finishing up frosting a cake they baked together while we were out.  Yum!

Gotta get every last bit of that frosting!!!

Sydney wanted Brian to read to her, but then halfway through the book decided she wanted to read herself.  I'm at the table trying to study and these two having a reading war (yes, both were reading out loud) weren't helping matters.

Trying to handle the basket...once there were a few items actually in it, she started pushing it as it was too heavy to carry.  She just had to do it on her own though...  :)

She is just too cute!!! 

**Summer Tidbits**

~Sydney still loves school.  We have found that we cannot say her teacher's name, Ms. Amber, before breakfast otherwise she wants nothing to do with eating and wants to immediately go bye-bye to see her.  And, as you can imagine with that being said, it is sometimes a bit of a struggle to get her out the door to come home at the end of her little day.  It literally takes us close to 10 minutes to leave as Sydney has to hug EVERYONE; teachers, classmates, older kids who might be passing by, and other parents coming to get their children.  It's a little ridiculous.  Cute, but ridiculous.

~Water update:  It has now progressed from sounding like "I-go" to "Why-go."  So, at least we are getting the W sound in there.  If she slows down talking she sometimes gets the T in there, but that is rare. 

~Speaking of water...  She just kills us with her water having to be "FRESH."  If her cup has been sitting out for awhile, she will bring it to you and say "FRESH" wanting you to dump it out and get her fresh, cold water.  Where she gets this stuff, who knows. 

~Snacks...  Sydney loves the Annie's brand organic bunny crackers.  We get a box of them at Costco and it comes with four different flavors in indivual snack bags.  Well, this summer she has decided that she loves the cheddar flavor the most (her father concurs!).  She started sitting on the floor with the box and would pull out one bag at a time trying to find the cheddar bunnies.  The thing is, the cheddar flavor comes in a purple bag- same as the chocolate chip flavor.  The graham and brownie are in different colors.  She is a smart cookie and wasn't going to let the purple bag fool her.  She started pulling out the purple bags and would look at the front of the bag where the picture is, then look at the side of the box where it has all the types shown, and would match up her cheddar bunnies that way.  This was funny and cute until it dawned on us that there are only so many cheddar bags in the box!  We started to dread the day when the only purple bags in there were chocolate chip.  The day came and, as expected, it was a disaster.  There was crying, a little tantrum, and finally, with total reluctance and some attitude, the picking out of a different flavor.  She grumbled the whole way through the rest of the box.  We had bought these snacks on sale at Costco, so we still had another whole box in the pantry.  Currently she is a happy little bunny snacker as we just opened the new box and she has rekindled her little cheddar love affair...but, deja vu will be setting in soon enough I'm sure...

~Sydney now uses the possessive sense of names...  It crept up on us, but we finally realized that when she was talking about something of mine or Brian's, she would say "Mommy's" or "Daddy's."  It's just crazy how that stuff is just picked up and learned...  Amazing.

~Our girl likes to read and likes to sing...  It is just a total crack-up when she is singing either Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star or the Alphabet Song.  They both have the same tune but depending on the words, or letters, she is saying, we know which song she is singing.  It is hilarious.

~Sydney quickly went from her standard answer of "No" to every question to "Huh?"  Anything you would ask her and she would say "Huh?"  Oh my goodness...that will drive you batty!!  Thankfully it only lasted for about a week or so.  (it was a LONG week!!)  Now she will pretty much answer correctly with either, "No.", "Huh?", "Yep.", or "Ummmm."  She makes us laugh...  Her newest thing that really just puts a smile on our face is when you tell her to do something and she responds with "K!"--with a little sing-song note...or will say "Okay!"  It is really sweet and it makes you just want to hug her.  It's a very innocent response--I don't know how else to describe it.

~Veggietales!  She is just now starting to actually watch Veggietales, but what she really loves is her Veggietales book.  She goes crazy for Bob the tomato and Larry the "Cumber."  (she can't say cucumber...so it comes out Cumber!  So cute!!)  She points out all the peas, squash and Laura the carrot...oh, and Madame Blueberry.  Pa Grape is fondly called "Papa!" as he has a mustache just like her Papa.  I'm telling you-Sydney is cute!!!  So precious.

~And, for the newest tidbit...  Potty training!  No, I'm not doing it at home...although she was ready to start doing it at home about a month ago.  I have just been dragging my feet and not wanting to take on that next phase.  I had stated a long time ago that I would rather wait until she is beyond ready and will train in a short time, than drag it out for months on end.  Well, she pretty much tells you now if she has peed or pooped and will tell you to change her diaper.  That's all fine and good until she says she peed again, after having JUST changed her.  I just want to look at her and say "Look, that diaper costs a pretty penny and can hold another pee or two...come back then!"  I would tell you that of course I don't say that to her, but I think I actually have a time or two.  What?!  Anyway, last week when I went to pick Sydney up from school I was told, in an excited manner, that she went potty like a big girl.  The next day they informed me that she went potty like a big girl multiple times that day.  I felt like my daughter was going behind my back!  "Well, if Mom won't train me at home, I'll just have to do it at school!"  All joking aside, I am so proud of her, of course, but will wait to really work on it after we get back from our mini trip this next week.  That's all I wanted...to be able to travel with diapers!!  She's not even 2 for crying out loud! 

Okay, that's all for now!  Summer has passed...let Fall begin!

4th of July in Washington!

Long overdue, but here is the blog on our outing in July.

Sydney and I travelled down to Yelm, Washington to visit Gretchen and her family over the holiday weekend.  I was looking forward to the trip, but not to the flight down and back as this was the first attempt after our disastrous experience 1+ year prior.  BUT, Sydney was a rockstar and did fabulously!  It was actually one of the best flights I had ever had.  She wasn't phased at all by take-off or landing...or having to stay confined to our two seats.  She was happy to socialize with all who would pay attention to her.  At one point we headed to the bathroom to change her diaper and it was a long walk as everyone had to receive a proper HI from Sydney...and some indulged her with a small conversation.  On the way back to our seats it was the same thing except it was an exuberant BYE.  She was cute and it did kill some time, so no complaints from me.

Once we landed we were met by Nanna and Papa.  It was then another couple-hour drive to Gretchen's...no thanks to rush-hour traffic!  We had stopped at a Subway to get something to eat and there was a police officer sitting at the back table.  My mom commented that Sydney didn't seem to notice anything familiar about him.  When Michael, my brother, was her age and saw a police officer, he would automatically assume it was Papa.  I mentioned that Sydney doesn't really ever see Brian in his uniform as he gets into his gear in the garage...or she is at school...or whatever.  Well, coincidentally once we got back in the car and on the highway, a sheriff's car drove by and Sydney perked up and said "Daddy!"  It was so funny.  Brian's car is in our driveway when he is off duty, so for her to recognize that, just as my brother recognized a man in uniform, after my mom just reminisced about it, was priceless.  She made her daddy proud to say the least.  :)

Meeting Auntie Gretchen, Cousin Dulce and Baby Sean for the first time.

Scheming already...

Best friends forever!

Listen up, Sean.  You can't talk, therefore you can't tattle on me, so I'm going to go ahead and take some of your snack.  Don't cry.

Teaching the girls young.

4th of July...outside of an Olive Garden.

Dulce is almost 6 months older than Sydney...not that you would know that from their size!

Unsuccessfully trying to get the kids together for a nice photo.

Papa, Dulce, Nanna, Sydney.  Awwww...

It was so nice to see Dulce again and meet Sean for the first time.  Oh, and it was also nice to catch up with David and Gretchen.  We all had a lot of fun watching the kids play together.  Wish we were closer...

June Pics

Enoying one of the many trails up at Kincaid.

One of Sydney's favorite spots to read and discuss daily matters with her bear friends.

Campfire hot dogs and s'mores with the Darrels out at Eagle River Campground.

School!

--May 26th--

This was Sydney's first week of pre-preschool!

Since before Sydney was born, we have talked about schools and thought it would be neat to put her in one of the immersion programs offered through the school district (Japanese, Spanish, or Russian).  The more we talked about it, we were really leaning towards the Japanese immersion for many different reasons.  Well, a few months ago I noticed a commercial on TV (which is so rare these days as what TV is watched, it is normally taped and commercials are just passed on by!) for Children's Garden Montessori that is a Japanese immersion school, preschool through 6th grade.  As we started to look into it, we grew more and more interested.  Not only was it the language we wanted, but it was a true Montessori school--which, the more we learned about the method, the greater our excitement became.

So, one school tour later, and many questions answered, we wanted to put Sydney's name on the waiting list for the preschool program that starts at age 3.  The school director mentioned that they offer a toddler program starting at 18 months and that they had a spot available if we were interested in that.  18 months meant only a month away...here we were walking into the school thinking we had another year and a half to prepare, not just one month!  If Sydney were to start the toddler program, she would then go into preschool when she was ready, even if that turned out to be before the age of 3.

As I was tearing up just thinking about my baby going off to school in just mere weeks, we obviously had to go home and mull it over...pray about it...and look at financing.  We found out that Sydney could go in at any time we felt comfortable, whether it was at 18 months, the summer program, or the beginning of the school year in the fall.  The regular school semester hours for this age group is 9-3 five days a week.  It seemed like a huge shock to Sydney's schedule if we were to do that, so we opted to start her this summer as they are more flexible with the hours.  She could do half or full days, however many days of the week we wanted.  So, this gave us a couple months to just let it all sink in and get ready for it.

Well, the time has officially arrived!  (Technically she starts on May 31st, but we did a couple days this week to just get our toes wet.)  She will be going Mondays, Tuesdays, and Wednesdays from 9-3.

A big change, other than the obvious, will be getting up in the mornings!  UGH!  It was an eye opener these past couple of days to head out the door around 8:45 am and realize that the city is alive and people are actually out and about!  We are not morning people!  Anyway- we have been working on Sydney's bedtime and slowly pushing it up the last month and a half or so.  She used to go to bed between 10 and 11 pm (remember, Brian works nights and this has always been our schedule) and get up usually around 11:30 or 12.  As the bedtime got earlier and earlier, one would think her waking hour would get earlier and earlier...but, that just didn't seem to be the case...she just kept sleeping!  We now have settled into going to bed between 8:15 and 8:30 and getting up a little after 8. 

--Thursday, June 2nd-- (Okay...wasn't able to finish this the other night when I originally started...so, as you continue reading, Sydney has now been in school for five days!)

School has been fantastic!  On a couple of occasions Sydney's teacher, Ms. Amber, has commented on Sydney being her "bestest" girl.  The last time she said it, Brian made a remark about how she has to say that about all her kids.  She laughed and said, "Uh, no...I don't."  It was cute...and a little proud moment for Mommy and Daddy!  :) 

There are tears shed in the morning (on Sydney's part) but they are quickly dried up and she is off to a start.  They usually go outside to play right around the time comes to pick her up from school, so it's always fun to park and just watch from a distance our girl just doing her own little thing. 

She still hasn't totally warmed up to nap time at school...which is our fault probably.  She is so used to sleeping in her little peapod (tent of sorts), having darkness and her river noise on in the background, that the idea of laying down on a mat, out in the open with other kids, was a pretty foreign concept to her.  She usually comes home after her day and goes down for a two-hour nap, if not more!  She is pooped, that's for sure!

Yesterday when we got home I was going to get out her lunch for her to snack on before she went down for a nap.  We sat at our little coffee table and I unzipped her lunch box and all of a sudden Sydney was right there pulling out her cloth napkin (they are supposed to have a cloth napkin that they can unfold and use as a placemat at school), smoothing it out in front of her and then placing each lunch container on it in front of her.  It was amazing!  For being 20 months old and only in school for 4 days...it is just so cool.

So far, so good.  We did decide to put her in an extra day, so now she is there Mon-Thursday.  We miss her like crazy, but on the other hand, it is just neat to see her doing other things and learning how to do other things...socializing...etc.  Pretty soon she will be immersed in the Japanese side of things and then we will have a whole new wave of excitement hit us.  We went to the school's spring program/graduation last week and that just really pumped us up.  All the kids were doing skits and songs in Japanese, as well as other things in English they had prepared.  The graduation of the different levels in the school was neat to see...  It's just exciting to be a part of something different and unique, and I think not only will Sydney gain so much from this, but both Brian and I will as well. 

This private school also works closely with the Anchorage School District, and as a result all the kids graduating from 6th grade, then are automatically allowed into the Japanese Immersion program that picks up at Mears Middle School, and then on to Dimond High School.  Normally you would have to live in the area zoned for those schools (or at least for the initial elementary school, Sand Lake), and you would have to interview for the program, etc.  So, that is also a plus we will benefit from down the road.

First day of school pics:  Not the greatest, but you have to remember, this was our FIRST EARLY day!...and boy was it early!

Okay...some non-school stuff now...  :)

Sydney likes to "reorganize" our movies.  She takes them out and stacks them up, then puts them back in her order.  She particularly likes to go in after Daddy has reorganized them the way HE wants them.

"If you're happy and you know it, STOMP your feet."  Sydney's sumo-style stomping.

These are taken out at Potter's Marsh Bird-Viewing Sanctuary.

Money-see, Monkey-do???

Sydney now will grab a pillow from the couch and sit at the table and read her books (out loud).  As she is done reading each one, she stacks them up right next to her.  Then she gets up and puts them all back on her book shelf.  It's so dang cute!

When Sydney was born she got a hand-made rocking horse, Lemonade, that my Aunt Sherry made for her.  It is super special and has sat in our living room ever since.  Well, the other night we were getting ready for bed and I turn around and Sydney is on Lemonade!  I guess she has now decided that she is big enough to get on her all by herself.  So, the first couple pics are from her very first time getting on her all by herself...in her pajamas.  :)  She now gets on her every day and what is so funny is that Sydney will get on the horse, rock, then get off and push it to a different spot, get on and rock, get off, push to a different spot...and just go around in circles.  She is a quirky girl to say the least.

Playing outside...chasing Tucker around.

Helping Mama get ready for dinner...(although Mama already had the potatoes on the stove!)

**Just a few Tidbits**

~Not quite sure when she started saying the word WATER, but it's been a few months now at least.  Anyway, we have no idea why she says this, but for water she says "aygo" (pronounced: I-GO).  It's very strange but totally funny.

~April, 2011.  Another word she says that always makes us laugh is ELBOW.  She points to her elbow and says "belbow."  So stinkin' cute. 

~April, 2011.  I used to always take an empty paper towel roll, or an empty toilet paper roll, put it up to my lips and do the "royal trumpet" sound.  Can you hear it in your head?  Well, Sydney saw me switching out the toilet paper one day and grabbed the empty one out of the trash and put it up to her mouth (okay, that sounds bad...it wasn't as disgusting as it sounds!) and was doing a little royal fanfare herself.  It was hilarious.

~April 29th.  Sometime around the beginning of April, maybe March I guess, I put Sydney in time-out.  She was just being a pill and was crying for no reason...etc.  I told her it was time out and talked sternly, then proceeded on taking her into our bedroom and sitting her down on Tucker's bed, which seemed like a perfect spot at the time.  Anyway, I had to go in three times to put her back on there until she stayed.  I had made an off-hand remark to Brian along the lines of "Well, I guess we are doing time-outs now."  We hadn't ever really discussed doing them or not doing them...it just seemed right at the time.  A couple weeks later I put her in her second time-out and she actually stayed put.  Well, on this day, April 29th, I was gone and Sydney just threw a tantrum when Brian told her "No" about something.  He looked at her and told her to go sit in time-out.  She went directly to the bedroom and sat down on Tucker's bed and started bawling.  It's weird to say that it breaks your heart but at the same time makes you a little proud.  Sad that she was crying and upset, but proud that without a second thought she knew right where to go and what to do...and she had only had two time-outs up to that point and they were weeks apart! 

~May 19th.  Sydney said "love u" to me (stephanie) completely umprompted today!  She was leaning in to kiss me and said "mow mue," which is how she says love you.  She has said this for awhile, but always after we tell her to say it.  Now, whenever she is saying "nigh, night" she will add in a "mow mue".  It just melts your heart!

~May 23rd.  So when my mom was here this last visit, she had Sydney up on the bed one afternoon and would count "1-2...3!" and throw her into the pillows.  Sydney would stand back up and start counting herself, although she started with "Fhree!..." and would then throw herself down.  Well, the other day Sydney wasn't listening to me and I decided to give her a warning before the spanking so I automatically started counting (which I have never done before...I guess I must have been reverting back to my childhood! haha), ONE, TWO...  As soon as I said ONE and saw a twitch of a smile come across her face, I realized I just made a big mistake.  After TWO she jubilantly cried out FHREE!  Thanks, Mom!

Okay, I think that is plenty for now...  I better post this before several more days pass by and I will have a whole new set of pics and stories!